1958 film by Henry Cornelius
Next to No Time, also known as Next to No Time!, is a 1958 British colour comedy film written and directed by Henry Cornelius and starring Kenneth More, Betsy Drake, John Laurie, Sid James and Irene Handl.[1] It was based on Paul Gallico's short story The Enchanted Hour. It was the last feature film completed by Cornelius before his death in 1958.[2] The film concerns an underconfident engineer who is helped by the advice of a ship's barman.
Plot
David Webb is a mild-mannered British planning engineer sent across the Atlantic by his firm to negotiate a deal, a task for which he feels hugely out of his depth. However, a friendly barman, with the help of one of his special cocktails, convinces Webb that his personality changes during the hour when the clocks on the ship are stopped when it enters a new time zone in its progress west.
Production
In March 1957 Cornelius travelled to the US to look for an American co-star to appear opposite Kenneth More.[3]
The film was shot at Shepperton Studios.[1]
Cinematographer Freddie Francis called it "a bit of a mess of a film" and said Cornelius was "a lovely man but a bit of a muddler. And the film didn't make a lot of sense, it needed a bit of stronger direction and by now, unfortunately, one of the problems may have been, by now Kenny More who I liked very much, Kenny More was a bit of a law unto himself and Corny hadn't done anything for a long time. So I've an idea that Kenny may have been a bit too strong for Corny."[4]
Release
The film was premiered at the cinema on the Queen Elizabeth, on which some of the film was shot, while the ship was docked at Southampton.[5] It was released in the US by Rank Distributors of America, the first time that company had distributed a non-Rank film.[6]
Critical reception
Variety called it "a flimsy comedy" with "impeccable casting".[7]
The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Cornelius' little frolic is very much like the bubbles cascading around the opening title and credits – thin, transparent and bouncy."[8]
Filmink argued "More was miscast in an Alec Guinness/Norman Wisdom type part, as a nerdy engineer who gets brave at certain times of the day – More is always so cheery and confident that the device of the “worm turning” doesn't work. (And why not have him romance Betsy Drake?)"[9]
Leslie Halliwell said: "Whimsical comedy which never gains momentum."[10]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "This whimsical comedy was something of a disappointment considering it marked the reunion of director Henry Cornelius with his Genevieve star Kenneth More. Sadly, it proved to be Cornelius's last picture before his tragically early death the same year during the production of Law and Disorder. More is curiously out of sorts as an engineer who uses a voyage on the Queen Elizabeth to persuade wealthy Roland Culver to back his latest project. His romantic interest is provided by Betsy Drake, who was then married to Cary Grant."[11]
In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "good", writing: "Pleasant, if uneasy mixture of genres. Smiles rather than guffaws."[12]
After Cornelius' death, a friend of his wrote how "intensely personal, of all this films", Next to No Time was to the writer-director, adding: "A man of acute introspection and self-examination, he identified himself closely with The Little Guy in the story ... The character in the film, played by Kenneth More, is a planning engineer in a large factory who finds a difficulty in convincing his employers of his ability. “I know I’ve got it in me” the character says in effect, “but when it comes to putting myself over to people, I don’t know how to do it.” In the course of the story. The Little Guy learns how to do it, and becomes a Big Guy. Remembering his own early struggles to convince people of his ability, studying his own development as a man, ever grateful for the success which his ability and determination attained, Cornelius had a passionate belief that his new film, for all its trappings of comedy, would give help and encouragement to the millions of Little Guys who would be given an opportunity to see it. This perhaps serves best to illustrate his overall attitude towards film-making. From boyhood, he saw the medium as a means of disseminating ideas. And the idea that seemed most to excite him is that in our world, The Big Guy is only The Little Guy who has crossed the rubicon by his belief in himself. His death robs the British cinema of its most serious comedy maker."[2]
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